The Department of Economics is in Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science. It consists of more than 30 full-time faculty whose research covers most major areas of modern economics. The department has been consistently ranked among the top 40 economics departments in the United States.

The faculty are committed to delivering outstanding undergraduate and graduate programs and to producing high-quality research. Economics is the largest undergraduate major in the College of Arts and Science. The undergraduate program provides rigorous training in micro and macroeconomics and offers a variety of advanced elective courses. Students are prepared for future careers in business, law, and government, or for pursuing graduate study. The Ph.D. program in economics builds on a core of economic theory and econometric methods, and equips students to conduct frontier research in their dissertations. Students enter the Ph.D. program from around the country and abroad. Recent graduates have been hired in tenure-track positions at the London School of Economics, University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, Emory University, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, among others. The Graduate Program in Economic Development offers the MA degree in economic development, as well as a non-thesis certificate in economic development. Since its inception in 1956, about 1300 students from 120 countries have studied in the program and many of them have gone to distinguished careers in public service and international development organizations.